Fall Sketchup Challenge

There has always been a monument that intrigued me. It’s in the US somewhere. I was born, raised, and live in Canada. You think I could find this monument? I don’t where it is, or what it’s called, but I knew what it looked like. Well, I did eventually find it. It’s called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. I once knew it as the St. Louis Arch.

In looking at the wonderful work done by fellow lumberjocks, I’ve become fascinated with bent laminations and veneering. Two things that I think would be necessary in this project.

The table would most likely be made from cherry veneer with maple inlay. I also though of doing two circumferential brass inlays, each 1/8” thick and separated by 2” around the top. It may not be plausible, but I see it in my head.

Here’s the table. Forgive my rudimentary sketchup skills.

The table is 108” long by 60” wide. It stands standard height.

Thanks for looking!

Tomot :)

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Thanks guys. It was fun fiddling with the math of the arch. In doing research, the arch is actually as wide as it is tall and the base is an equilateral triangle. It’s 3.17 times smaller at the top of the arch than the base and is considered an inverse catenary. As making the arched bases an equilateral triangle of 3.17 times smaller at the peak than the bases seemed an insurmountable task in my shop, I made the bases square with thickness 3.17 times at the peak than the base. For your viewing pleasure, here is the equilateral triangle base with proportioned thickness but base:height ratio of my table:

A table with arches of exact proportions goes beyond my sketchup skills as the math is quite complicated and I keep drawing bulges rather than a catenary.

And for the obsessive compulsives’ out there, a catenary is basically what a chain would do if hung from two fixed level points with only the forces of gravity pulling on it.

Cheers!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

why are you apologizing re: Sketchup Skills?? (Oh , that would be the Obsessive-compulsive-perfectionist characteristics???) haha. .. first of all – you did an awesome job!!! and secondly, that’s what this challenge is all about—to CHALLENGE us to develop new skills.

Very nice! Great design and a great execution of the inspiration in the table. That would look really good in curly cherry with curly maple for the accent pieces! Great job on the model. Curves and round objects are tricky at best in Sketchup. It is not exactly suited for “organic” modeling! You have nothing to apologize for, your model looks great! The one thing I have learned in looking at allot of professional 3D artists and renderers is the biggest difference between a great model and an amazing one is the quality of the textures. There are allot of websites that offer them for free and some that require a membership, but they are out there. You can even create your own from digital photos. Nice job!